Anusha Parthasarathy

I'm a writer and journalist based out of San Francisco, CA

The Hindu •

Once upon a time in Mexico

Our vacation in Mexico City began in o ne of the most popular beach towns, Puerto Vallarta. Hot, humid and laid back, this town, reminiscent of Puducherry, gave out island vibes with its beach shacks and rocky promenade. But a short 48 hours was all we had, and we soaked it all in with watermelon margaritas and fresh enchiladas. The next day, we took an hour-long flight to Mexico City. Mexico City is up and bustling early. It is warm but windy, since the city is at a height of 7,200...
The Hindu •

Chennai: Business as usual

Nalini Chettur sits outside her bookstore every afternoon, watching the world pass by. Look behind, and you will see a little room crammed with books from floor to ceiling and a pattamadai mat outside with her latest finds. At Giggles: The Biggest Little Bookshop, which began as a small bookstore inside the Vivanta by Taj Connemara in 1974, it is business as usual. E-commerce has change bookstores forever. With even big chains like Landmark and Crossword shut...
The Hindu •

Reaching out

It’s that time of the year when tensions are as high as the temperatures outside. It’s not just the students, especially those who had just given their board exams, waiting anxiously for the results but also distress helplines, with counsellors ready to offer a helping hand to those who are disappointed or have failed. What exactly happens in a distress helpline centre?“This is the busiest time of the year for us,” says Paras Sharma, Programme Coordinator, iCall, a psychosocial helpline project...
The Hindu •

Flip through time

History is often misunderstood and judged for its intensity and unassuming influence on our lives. It is like a skeleton in the closet, whose presence looms large but one that we try not to acknowledge. It’s everywhere — in the food we eat, the clothes we wear, the buildings we pass by and whatever we read. Yet, these stories, waiting to be heard, are locked up behind cobwebbed doors and forgotten. An easier way to approach history is to pick up a book, leaf through its comforting pages and watc...
The Hindu •

A woman of words

Rajam Krishnan was self-aware. She knew that her vast repertoire as a writer was rare, especially for a girl from 1920s Tiruchi, whose education was cut short by marriage. While she never identified herself as feminist, her short stories were mostly women-centric, addressing issues that no one spoke of in her time. Her long form, usually, was about people who would never have otherwise been written about — the Badaga tribe of the Nilgiris, salt pan workers, famers… The stories were true, even if...
The Hindu •

The Nity Gritty

How does one become an environment activist? Especially one who battles for local communities, writes extensively on the environment and pedals around the city on his trusty bicycle. Nityanand Jayaraman, one of the city’s foremost environment activists didn’t start off as one until a lady from Thanjavur changed his life.With a father who worked in the Central Government, Nityanand (a.k.a Nitty) admits that he grew up ‘all over the place’ but says that if there was one place he could pin it down...
The Hindu •

Her early voice

“I had chafed under the restraints and the ties which formed the common lot of women... How hard it seemed to my mind that marriage should be the goal of woman's ambition, and that she should spend her days in the light trifles of a home life; live to dress, to look pretty, and never know the joy of independence and intellectual work. The thought had been galling. It made me avoid men.” This could have been written today. It was actually written in the 1880s by a woman from Madras.Born in Ahmeda...
The Hindu •

A stitch in time

In the picturesque Sittilingi Valley in Dharmapuri district are 21 villages that have benefited from the Tribal Health Initiative (THI), started by two doctors, an engineer and a social worker in 1992. It has built, over 20 years, a 24-bed hospital that not just offers subsidised healthcare to the local tribes but also trains and provides them employment at the hospital. The initiative has also begun helping the local farmers with organic farming and the Lambadi women with reviving traditional c...
The Hindu •

All in an auto

Annadurai spent the early hours of Friendship Day (August 4) answering hundreds of calls that kept his phone ringing incessantly. People from 35 (or more, he says) countries were trying to get in touch with him, to appreciate him and hear his story all over again.A share-auto driver on the Thiruvanmiyur-Sholinganallur route, Annadurai’s auto is loaded with goodies — free WiFi, mobile charging point, 35 magazines, 10 newspapers, TV and a Samsung Galaxy tablet to access Internet (in case you don’t...
The Hindu •

A laterite structure that’s languishing

Six years have passed. But, R. Mani, a native of Pulicat, still remembers how it felt when he first saw the ruins of the ancient temple of Adi Narayana Perumal, an architectural marvel. “I hacked my way through thick vegetation till I finally saw the majestic entrance. And just a few mt ahead, the temple materialised in all its splendour, despite many years of disuse.” Soon, it drew heritage lovers and architects. “Laterite is porous and difficult to sculpt. But one of the unique features of thi...
The Hindu •

Where the penguins party

Just when you think it’s going to be a warm, sunny day, Melbourne does a Murphy on you and it begins to rain. You grow suspicious of its sense of humour and arm yourself with a parka or woollen coat every time you step out, but the city and its weather still manage to surprise you every time.There’s a lot to see for the tourist. You could do the usual museum watch, walk down St. Kilda’s pier, or visit Captain Cook’s cottage. But it’s when you step outside the city perimeters that you begin to ex...
The Hindu •

Bridges of Madras — A link to the past

Some of the earliest images of Madras show a fishing village, with its cloak of nets, lengthy boats and turbaned men rushing towards the waters of the Marina as tall palms sway in the background. As this village grew, the need for connecting the villages that lay across various rivers and canals, and not just by boats, grew. Bridges were built, first of wood and then of brick and mortar, and villages grew closer and closer until they became the city of Madras. Some of these bridges, as old as th...
The Hindu •

What? A banyan that bagged an Oscar?

The shadows cast by the huge wayside trees form a chequered pattern on the road. We stop in front of a rusty gate that guards a giant banyan and a temple situated on the outskirts of Sivaranthagam village, just a few miles before Kizhur village and around 20-odd km from Puducherry.The stony walls that support the metal railings have colourful idols mounted atop them, but the gate is secured with a heavy chain and a large lock that dangles in front. Like a statue garbed in a turmeric and fiery re...
The Hindu •

Back to school

The rumbling noises from a construction site fade into oblivion as one enters the Teachers’ Training College in Saidapet. It begins at a building that looks like a forgotten castle from a fairytale. Its tall, arched entrance stands majestically in front while the turret, the windows and everything behind its façade lie crumbling and broken. Creepers cling to its blackened walls and trees shoot out from inside, breaking through the stone. But the oldest Teachers’ Training College in India, which...
The Hindu •

Hidden 100: On the wings of time

I wish I was the eagle that soared above Kazhugumalai's rocky hills, instead of being the tourist with a heavy camera strutting up its stone steps, secretly hoping to be airlifted by the bird that was nowhere in sight. “High, stone steps don't go well with short people,” my friend mumbles as she follows.Our interest in Kazhugumalai is kindled by the misnomer of a name that it possesses. There are pond herons and kingfishers but no eagles atop this ‘hill of eagles'. Perhaps it stems from the famo...
The Hindu •

Survivors of time: Chetpet Dhobikhana — The century-old Dhobi Ghat

At the Chetpet Dhobikhana hens and chickens rummage in the soapy waters around the ironing shed and washing areas even as its residents grapple with water and electricity shortage. Water pumps stand redundant in a corner, the air rings with the sound of clothes slapping stone and the smell of detergent from the starched whites and wrung-out bed sheets permeates the surroundings. Life has come a long way for the families that occupy Chennai's oldest dhobikhana.Among the earliest mentions of dhobi...
The Hindu •

Survivors of time - The gavel's knock

Murray and Co., where different eras juxtapose, it is hard to imagine order. The sun seeps in through stained glass to illuminate old microwaves, sewing machines, computer keyboards and dismantled swings. Every Sunday, over the last eight decades, at least 250 ageing articles resting in this auction house find new homes.In 1927, S. Vedantam, an agriculture graduate, began a small auction house on Thambu Chetty Street to cash in on the closure of the bigger ones. “We are told that Dowden & Co, a...
The Hindu •

Languid Langkawi

At Langkawi, you don't sip hot chocolate by the windowsill when it rains. At least, I didn't. I was stranded at sea pretending to be a pirate. Savvy?The largest group of islands in Malaysia, Langkawi is a maze of emerald green and turquoise blue. There are rolling hills swathed in silver-grey mist that follow you everywhere and palm trees that wave you by. As if that weren't enough, happy clouds bounce around in clear blue skies and light up the pristine, silent roads. But, there is danger lurki...
The Hindu •

Snaking through the years

It looks straight out an R.K. Narayan novel. A lazy pyol for siestas, cows sauntering around, small doors leading to long passages, and a large joint family scuttling in and out of the office. Manonmani Vilasam Press, run by the four Kumar brothers, has been the only printer of the 28-page Pambu Panchangam , which their forefather Konnur Manicka Mudhaliar started in 1884 for the sole purpose of printing the almanac. And the brothers,...

Short-form storytelling

Non-journalistic work

In the dark of the night - The Madras Mag

Anusha Parthasarathy
 

When I was little, maybe nine or ten,
The stories I heard, of monsters in the den.
Often left me awake at night, afraid of the dark
Afraid of the night.
 
But now it isn’t the dark I fear,
As I lay awake, and draw my dog near.
But what sleep brings, in all its pale white,
Women of red eyes, hags touching me, pointing towards a light.
 
What were these witches, and ghosts that stayed,
As I lay unmoving, between night and day?
My hands and legs and even my eyes were glued,...
Economic and Political Weekly •

A Long Pause

You want to run away. You have spent the entirety of your childhood and early adulthood in Chennai. You are free-spirited, of course, and try to get away as much as you can to faraway lands in order to breathe. But, why are you feeling suffocated in the first place?
You begin by feeling sad. People tell you it is a phase, even when you lose interest in your job and refuse to pick up calls or meet people. And, you believe them. You grow sadder, and the weight on your shoulders has grown so he...

Writing for Young Adults